New Bond Street in London’s Mayfair has overtaken Oxford Street as the UK’s most expensive retail street for the first time in 20 years.
The news was revealed in Cushman & Wakefield’s Main Streets Across the World 2006 report.
The annual report tracks the amount of money retailers are willing to pay to guarantee their position on the world’s most prestigious shopping streets. It records retail rents in the world’s top 233 shopping locations across 47 countries around the world.
It said demand for the cachet of a New Bond Street flagship store and address has fuelled a 4% increase in rents in the last 12 months. Prime units on New Bond Street are now £359.97/sq ft (£3874.71/sq m).
Around the world, New York City’s Fifth Avenue remains the world’s most expensive retail street while India’s New Delhi is the year’s biggest riser in the ranking of the world’s most expensive shopping locations.
There was little movement at the top of the ranking with Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and the Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris retaining their second and third rankings from 2005 behind New York. A 1,000 sq ft (93 sq m) unit on Fifth Avenue, at its most expensive stretch near the junction with 57th Street, now costs $1,350/sq ft/year (£722.08/sq m/year).
Gene Spiegelman, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield in New York, said: ‘This is not just about sales at the till, but about the brand value of retail real estate. In a world of advertising ‘clutter’, we see companies increasingly leveraging their brands through real estate and Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue is a prime example of this trend.’
Three of the west end of London’s shopping streets have been ranked in the top five of Europe. The survey ranked New Bond Street, Oxford Street and Covent Garden the respective second, third and fifth most exclusive shopping streets in Europe.